April
Like every month, April flew by. Dave was getting accustomed to his new job, and I finished working at Lynne Rienner Publishers on April 4. I took a week off, and I actually did read a bit, though I never took the nap I’d promised myself. I got a bunch of work done on the kids’ scrapbooks, but of course I spent most of the time doing housework and wondering: 1. when we manage to do all that stuff while we’re working and 2. why no one has figured out a way to pay stay-at-home parents for doing the hardest job out there. At least the kids were in daycare!
On April 10, I picked Phoebe up from school early so we could bake cookies and watch Frozen together. All her friends have been talking about it, so I thought it would be nice for her to be able to join in. We both had a great time and enjoyed the movie.
April 12
April 13
Dave was playing his saxophone at church, so we had to arrive pretty early. The kids played in the nursery while I practiced the lesson I was reading a few times.
That afternoon Phoebe treated us to a princess tea party. She got dressed up and served Dave (the prince) and me (the queen). It was quite luxurious.
April 14
I started my new job! My coworkers are very friendly, and I managed to start learning the new systems even though the (apparently) extremely important packet from HR didn’t arrive at the office when it was supposed to. My boss, who lives and works in New Hampshire, has a great attitude, and so far my job has been challenging and busy. The best part is that I’ve been doing this long enough to know what I’m doing in the industry, so I was able to start working right away. I’m pretty pleased with the change.
Here’s Benjamin playing with his lighthouse stacker.
The kids were roughhousing; we’ve been trying to get out some energy in the evenings, but this time, Benjamin started it by pushing Phoebe over. She was very sweet about it, though I took this video as their playing was winding down and she was getting a little more rambunctious with him.
April 15
This is just a video of Benjamin doing toddler-boy stuff. He never stops moving!
April 16
Photos of Benjamin’s wonderful hair. I can’t take too many of these!
April 18–19
The very first Friday of my new job, Benjamin’s teacher called to say that he seemed hot when he went down for a nap and had a fever of 102.5 by the time he woke up. I went to get him, of course, thinking that my new boss was going to be initiated pretty quickly into life with Benjamin. On Saturday, our friends Jen and Varis, who live in Texas now, were in town visiting. They met us for breakfast and came over for egg-dyeing. This video is mostly adults chatting, but there’s some of the kids dipping eggs too.
April 20
Easter Sunday! We went to church and to the following Easter egg hunt mostly because neither one of us wanted to stay home on Easter. Benjamin was obviously pretty sick. After church, we took him to the after-hours-care place, which isn’t too far from our house and is open on Sundays (one benefit of changing health insurance with Dave’s new job). The doctor already knew he had croup just from listening to him cough from down the hall. It hadn’t occurred to me yet; I’m not sure why. Maybe because he’s always sick with some respiratory thing. I certainly remember Phoebe having that distinctive barking cough!
April 21
Benjamin was much too sick to go to daycare, but another wonderful thing about my new job is how easy it is to work from home. I can even remote into my work computer! It’s impossible to work with a healthy or even slightly sick kid at home, but a really sick kid is easy. Benjamin slept most of two straight days, poor little bugger. On Wednesday he went back to school, though I picked him up early, and on Thursday, I didn’t hear him cough once. Thank goodness he’s getting older, stronger, and better able to kick these illnesses!
Parents, you probably remember that when kids are super sick, they can play for about a minute at a time before they just lie down on the floor in exhaustion.
April 24
Oh, right, the healthy one! Phoebe went out to help Dave mow the lawn.
May 9
Does it count as posting in May if I add this last little tidbit? Dave joined the golf league at work, so he’s been thinking about golf and trying to figure out what modern equipment will overcome the fact that he hasn’t played regularly since high school. Phoebe has a set of golf clubs, so she’s been going out eagerly to practice with Daddy.
